In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged for the crime on a gallows in a warehouse in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas.

In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. It has already been hailed as a masterpiece.

Review:

"A masterpiece...a spellbinding work." Life

Review:

"A remarkable, tensely exciting, superbly written 'true account.'" The New York Times

Review:

"The best documentary account of an American crime ever written....The book chills the blood and exercises the intelligence...harrowing." The New York Review of Books

Synopsis:

With the publication of this book, Capote permanently ripped through the barrier separating crime reportage from serious literature. As he reconstructs the 1959 murder of a Kansas farm family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, Capote generates suspense and empathy.

About the Author

Truman Capote was a native of New Orleans, where he was born on September 30, 1924. His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was an international literary success when first published in 1948, and accorded the author a prominent place among the writers of America's postwar generation. He sustained this position subsequently with short-story collections (A Tree of Night, among others), novels and novellas (The Grass Harp and Breakfast at Tiffany's), some of the best travel writing of our time (Local Color), profiles and reportage that appeared originally in the New Yorker (The Duke in His Domain and The Muses Are Heard), a true-crime masterpiece (In Cold Blood), several short memiors about his childhood in the South (A Christmas Memory, The Thanksgiving Visitor, and One Christmas), two plays (The Grass Harp and House of Flowers), and two films (Beat the Devil and The Innocents).

Mr. Capote twice won the O. Henry Memorial Short Story Prize and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He died in August 1984, shortly before his sixtieth birthday.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Average customer rating based on 11 comments:

Donna LaMotte, November 5, 2014 (view all comments by Donna LaMotte)
It's not often that an author can portray murderers in such a light that the reader feels something close to empathy for the cast of characters, including the killers. It's another feat entirely to do this when the author is dealing with actual people in a work of non-fiction. The quadruple murder of a family, two parents and two children, drew Truman Capote's fascination so completely that he traveled to Holcomb, Kansas himself to interview the town. As the story unfolds, we find out the history of the murderers and how their pasts helped shape them into the men they became. The story is gripping. Capote's writing brings the horrifying events into focus.

pointyourtoe, January 2, 2012 (view all comments by pointyourtoe)
Not only are Capote's prose mesmerizing, he makes you forget what Dick and Perry are about to do, and nearly pity them, but the level of detail is especially impressive given that he allegedly never wrote a single note during the interviews. It's the most hauntingly addictive book I've read.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)

conner.barr, February 18, 2011 (view all comments by conner.barr)
In Cold Blood tells the true story of the murders of the Clutter family that took place in 1959 in Holcomb, Kansas. The story begins a few days prior to the murders. Capote goes in great detail to describe the town of Holcomb and an in depth look at the lives of the Clutter family. The Clutter's were strong Christians. Herb Clutter, one of the most respected men in town, was a farm owner and a family man. Then there is Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, who Capote goes back to every other chapter. Both are outcasts in society and have spent numerous prison terms. They had a plot to rob the Clutters and leave no survivors. Although the crime happens early on in the story, Capote really focuses on the aftermath. The effect it had on the town of Kansas and what happened to the killers.
The Capote masterpiece depicts the psychology behind random murdering such as what happened to the Clutter family. This book will keep the reader turning the pages. The story runs all the way through the killers' stay on Death Row up until they are executed in 1965. This novel raised a lot of questions as to how the novel was written and how the author knew so much about the killers. Also, the focus on Perry over Dick is interesting. The movie Capote does a great job at answering these mysteries created by the book, In Cold Blood, and would be a good follow up after reading this book. In Cold Blood is an amazing in depth account of a very unfortunate event.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)

"Review"
by The New York Times,
"A remarkable, tensely exciting, superbly written 'true account.'"

"Review"
by The New York Review of Books,
"The best documentary account of an American crime ever written....The book chills the blood and exercises the intelligence...harrowing."

"Synopsis"
by Random House,
With the publication of this book, Capote permanently ripped through the barrier separating crime reportage from serious literature. As he reconstructs the 1959 murder of a Kansas farm family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, Capote generates suspense and empathy.

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and gifts — here at Powells.com.